Hallaway
Sean Justin Hallaway (born January 12, 1992) better known by his last name as Hallaway, is an American rapper/songwriter and actor from Detroit, Michigan, musically active since 2007. After the immense independent success of his 2007 debut single "In It to Win It" (which peaked within the Top 40 of the Hot 100), his lead single, "Overcome", released in 2008, from his debut album Overcome, experienced a widespread re-release in mid-2009, along with singles "Behind the Scenes" and "December" thanks to his mid-2009 signing with DaynightTime Records. His debut album, Overcome, was released August 21, 2009 and debuted at #25 on the Billboard 200, selling 25,000 copies in its first week. His collaboration with Di$$t among others, titled "Crash the Wedding", became the fastest-selling song in history, debuting at #1 on the Hot 100 with over 1.2 million downloads in one week. Hallaway has announced that his second studio album, with a confirmed title Undercover, will be released September 10, 2010. The first single, "Afflict & Agonize" was released on March 30, 2010. He has starred in several successful films, including Over Your Head (2009), Last September (2009), and Read Between the Lines (2010). He has sold approximately 4 million albums worldwide. Music career Internet popularity (2007-2008) At the age of 15, in mid 2007, Hallaway used his MySpace Music profile on June 8, 2007 to release his debut single "In It to Win It". The song, which was released only digitally, went on to sell thousands of copies thanks to its success, and the song debuted on the rap tracks at #98 in August 2007 thanks to a rap performance Hallaway prepared for a few thousand people, which mostly consisted of covers of popular rap songs. As he continued performing for larger audiences throughout the rest of 2007, the song began being picked up by mainstream radio stations and it received a considerable amount of airplay. The song entered the Top 50 of the US Rap Tracks in October 2007 and the Top 30 of the US Rap Tracks in November 2007, with its Hot 100 debut at #96. As the song gained and gained in popularity, by January 2008, the song managed to peak within the Top 40 of the Hot 100 at #40, selling an accumulated total of 300,000 downloads. The song peaked at #11 on the US Rap Tracks chart. ''Dropped Out EP'' (2008) From the success of "In It to Win It", Hallaway was noticed and signed to semi-major record label Sinful Records in March 2008 and began work on an EP with seven songs, deciding he would start with that instead of an album. With it he released the first single, "At Gunpoint", on May 7, 2008. The song peaked at #104 on the Hot 100 and reached the Top 20 of the US Rap Tracks, and was certified Gold in the UK. The EP, titled Dropped Out EP, was released July 19, 2008. Due to it not being as successful as Sinful Records had hoped, he was dropped from the record label in August. ''Overcome'' (2008-2009) Throughout the rest of August and most of September, Hallaway received many rejections after auditioning for each record label. Eventually he signed with DaynightTime in late September 2008. He began work on his debut album. His first single from it, "Overcome", was released October 1, 2008. Though at first the song received as much success as the album's second single, "Behind the Scenes", both were re-released in June 2009 and "Overcome" and the album's third single "December" managed to peak within the Top 40 of the Hot 100 and receive Platinum certifications. The debut album, titled Overcome, was released in August 2009 and debuted on the Billboard 200 at #25. It went on to sell roughly 2 million copies in the US. ''Undercover'' & Five Star Hotel (2009-2011) In late 2009 he was approached by A&A and the two agreed to do a collaboration album. The two recorded it, titled Five Star Hotel, from November 2009-March 2010, with a scheduled release of August 1, 2010. They released the first single, "Livin' Large", on December 15, 2009 and the song became Hallaway's most successful at the time, peaking at #16 on the Hot 100. It also produced the Top 30 hit "Find Myself" in mid-2010. In late 2009, soon after the release of Overcome, Hallaway began work on a second studio album while touring, and was not finished recording until late June 2010. On May 30, 2010, he released the first single from the upcoming album, "Afflict", though it did not receive the success he wished for. The album was originally intended for a July 2010 release, but due to the Five Star Hotel plans, his label had to push the date back to September 10, 2010. The second single from the album, titled "Do or Die", featuring Zachary Flowers, was released in some markets in mid-June 2010, peaking within the Top 30 of all countries it was released in. It was released on July 1, 2010 in the US and peaked at #8. His collaboration with Di$$t and many other artists, "Crash the Wedding", was released July 2, 2010 as the third single from Undercover and the lead single from Di$$t's album Look Out! and broke music industry records for selling over 4 million copies worldwide in one week and being critically acclaimed. It sold 1.2 million copies in the US in its first week, becoming the fastest-selling single by any artist. He was also featured in the chart-topper, "This'll be a Classic (I'm a Sexoholic)", which was rey.del.rap's most successful single. Due to the success of these two singles, lead single "Afflict" debuted and peaked at #95 on the Hot 100 with sales of 10,000. Five Star Hotel was released on August 1, 2010 and debuted at #11 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 88,000 and 220,000 worldwide. Third album & collaboration with rey.del.rap (2010-present) Hallaway plans on releasing an as-of-yet untitled third studio album by the end of 2011, though he admits that he hasn't even begun working on it yet. He also hopes to get a Greatest Hits album out soon after his third studio album is released. Since June 2010, there has been talks that Hallaway and rey.del.rap, previous collaborators, may do an entire collaboration album together, sometime in 2011, most likely. This has been confirmed with a May 2011 release. However, both artists announced this would be a turning point in their music, though neither announced where it would turn to. The first single from the album has been announced to be titled, "Leave Everything Behind Tonight", with a February 2011 release date, along with the album's title confirmed to be Goodbye, to the Past. On July 26, 2010 he announced that a year from then (July 26, 2011) he would release his currently untitled third studio album, and that it would have a total of seventeen songs on it with two discs, which was almost twice the amount of his last two albums. He also announced that the album would have a total of nine official singles, two promos, and two digital singles. Film career Hallaway had a very minor role in the 2008 film A Day to Forget, which grossed 10 million worldwide. He later had a supporting role in Over Your Head, a March 2009 movie that grossed 36 million in the US, and 52 million worldwide, and was very successful, considering its 7 million dollar budget. In late 2009 he had his first starring role, in Last September, which grossed 103 million worldwide with a 20 million dollar budget, which was a financial success. He has since starred in the 2010 film Read Between the Lines, which grossed 266 million worldwide, his most successful film yet. He is set to star in the 2011 film, Last October. Discography Main article: Hallaway discography Studio albums *''Overcome'' (2009) *''Undercover'' (2010) EPs *''Dropped Out EP'' (2008) Collaborations *''Five Star Hotel'' (with A&A) (2010) *''Goodbye, to the Past'' (with rey.del.rap) (2011) Remixes *''Conscious: Remixes'' (2010) Filmography *''A Day to Forget'' (2008) *''Over Your Head'' (2009) *''Last September'' (2009) *''Read Between the Lines'' (2010) *''Last October'' (2011) See also *Hallaway discography